The future of logo designers is bleak
Is design a good business to be in? It seems everyone with a computer and a copy of Photoshop is a designer. That includes people anywhere in the world, be it downtown Manhatten or Bangkok Thailand.
Something thats been popular in webmaster message boards for a while now is logo contests. The way it works is someone says, logo contest, winner gets $X (usually between $100 to $300 max, sometimes lower.) They give a general description of what they are looking for and wait. If the payout is over $200 designers frantically submit their designs, usually filling up a couple of pages. The contest ends, and a winner is chosen by the person who started it.
The downside is, if you didn’t win you get no money (although you might get a job request from someone who liked your work.) Other than that slight upside, its a pretty crappy deal. Its kind of like construction companies bidding for a project, but they all have to do it and only one gets paid. Ok, there isn’t nearly that level of risk, but the point is the same. You are working for a chance to be paid. I could draw some comparisons to other “careers” like professional sports such as golf. However, in this case the stakes are a lot lower.
To me this process shows desperation on the part of designers. No legitimate search engine optimizer would ever agree to do the same, nor would many other service businesses.
If you want to make good money online its critical that you do something that is in high demand — and has a high barrier to entry. In this case the demand for logos is high, but the barrier to entry is low. A computer and a little understanding of art is all you need.
As a business owner you want to be in a position to benefit from cheap services, not be hurt by them. Today its logo design, tommorow it will be something else. There are major forces at work right now that are spreading wealth globally. To some people these changes are painting a dark future, to many more, its looking very bright. Over the next few weeks I will be blogging about how to welcome and benefit from these changes rather than fear them.
I assume you’re speaking of the SP forums, but maybe not. I wouldn’t consider myself a graphic designer, as I’ve had just a small amout of exposure to color theories, etc. But I have entered into a few contests over at SP and actually have won two, but the payout from both combined wasn’t more than 150 dollars. As you said, it shows a lot of desperation on designers’ part. I mean for the two contests I won, I put in WAY more hours then someone normally would for the same job, and probably got paid WAY less for doing it. I don’t enter the contests though because I’m making my living doing it though, just because I’m bored, or want to improve my portfolio. As you said, if the contest is for 200 dollars or more then you might as well forget about it, because it’s like blood in the water to a shark. I don’t even enter those unless it’s a logo for a subject I really like because they go on, and on, and on, and on, and it’s not worth the effort to keep up with the thread for the small chance that you’ll win.
Comment by Deron — February 12, 2006 @ 9:15 pm
Great article - especially your point about looking for a high demand, high barrier-to-entry product/service.
Over the past 12 months our business model has shifted away from graphic/web design to focus on web development.
Sure, there’s not a great barrier to enter web development, but to do a good job you often need specialized knowledge which in itself can be too much of a barrier some.
Plus, the best part about development is the project goals are much more defined. It’s easier to sign off development as it’s objective (does it work/perform, or doesn’t it?), whereas graphic/web design can go back and forth for a long time..
Comment by Goo Theory — February 13, 2006 @ 12:09 am
Thanks for the replies guys. One other thing I’ve noticed is quite a bit of resentment among guys who have been in the design business for years. The ones who are being proactive and modifying their approach are the ones who will survive.
As for the ones who don’t, I wouldn’t be suprised if they are long gone in 3 years or less. Despite what seems like a barrage of mediocre designers today, as time goes on their skill level will only continue to rise.
Comment by Andrew — February 13, 2006 @ 10:55 pm
Since you run 15 sites I’d like to know if you use “content writers”. If so, do you pay them fairly or do you subscribe to the “I’ll pay you $3 for 300 words” mess?
Just bringing it up because the same principle applies….everyone is a writer now and no one wants to pay for it.
*jumps off the soapbox*
Comment by Donyell — February 14, 2006 @ 6:27 pm